On this day: Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Highlanders cross the border into England

Today is the anniversary of a Jacobite army crossing the border into England in 1745.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 dethroned King James II and dispatched him to France in exile. In his place, Parliament invited William of Orange to rule alongside James’s daughter, Mary. Although the coup was bloodless, it triggered enormous social unrest, and five rebellions stretching over the following 60 years.

The “Forty-Five” was the fifth and most significant of these uprisings, which all aimed to restore the Stuarts to the throne. It was led by Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender – nicknamed Bonnie Prince Charlie – who assembled a small fleet and sailed from France, landing on Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides on 23 July 1745.